Juniper Research has awarded its “Future Mobile Gold Award” to Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) for “making an outstanding contribution to the future of the mobile contactless payments market”. For Edgar Salib, Senior Vice President and Head of the Financial Institutions division at G&D, this award confirms G&D’s position as “an innovative technology leader and valuable partner for banks. After an era of tech talk surrounding mobile payments as an isolated bank service, banks now focus on the consumer experience in the mobile channel. Powered by G&D Portigo, the bank’s exclusive app store, banks can guide consumers to a virtual world of service categories such as the mobile financial service store, insurance services, or the retail connect sections.“

Independent of the underlying technology, the possibilities of collaborative models between consumer app service providers and the financial sector have become a decisive factor in banks’ mobile channel strategies. Host card emulation (HCE) capabilities complement current hardware-based secure element (SE) solutions, thus offering a new cloud-based route to enhanced mobile payment ecosystems.

“The successful launch of mobile banking apps has already equipped financial institutions with the means to create substantial and sustainable traffic under their brand. This Traffic is very attractive to retailers, for example. The combination of mobile payments with identity and registration services, not forgetting contextual, non-intrusive mobile marketing and promotions, builds a solid base for collaborative models for the benefit of all stakeholders: banks, retailers, other mobile service providers, and most importantly consumers,” explains Salib.

“With G&D’s open and flexible mobile channel platform Portigo, banks are empowered to make their secure mobile app store an enticing mobile experience,” G&D’s Head of the Financial Institutions division points out. “To boost the distribution of this currently unrivaled proposition in the banking landscape, G&D offers its financial institution customers professional enrollment services that may combine the issuance of a physical card and a virtual companion card with the automated download of their bank branded app to the cardholder’s mobile device. Thus, exploiting physical card issuance, banks can deploy their branded mobile apps and virtual payment cards in volume in a fast, cost-effective, and highly convenient way for their customers.”

“G&D’s secure and exclusive bank app store provides a unique user experience and a consumer-friendly, intuitively structured service offering, allowing an easy drag and drop functionality for the consumer to load applications, so-called widgets, under the bank branded app on the smartphone. This approach puts the consumer in the center of all services and creates a valued relationship and versatile mobile ecosystem.” Salib is convinced that “mobile services from ‘my trusted bank’ are convenient, secure, and private and will transform the bank’s app world into a powerful 24/ 7 communication and interaction platform for the bank, the consumer and associated 3rd parties.”